You sometimes see on the back label the phrase "contains milk products" or 'fined using milk products, traces may remain". Its all part of the law surrounding the declaration of potential allergens (although whether any actually remain is in the wine is highly debatable).
While my usual goal is NOT to fine any of our wines (less is more), there are just some wines who are better off with a little fining. The fining agent of choice for me is usually egg white for our reds and milk for the whites.
And that's what I am doing at the minute - adding a little milk (trim milk, no need for the cream component here) as a gentle fining agent to our 2008 Riesling. Technically speaking I am adding casein which is the major protein in milk. Casein is positively charged and it attracts negatively charged particles in the wine which then fall under their own weight to the bottom of the tank and the fined wine is filtered off to another tank. Im using it just to brighten the wine colour and round out the palate as it drop out any bitter phenolic substances that may be in the wine.
Always crucial to do some bench trials first before adding anything to the wine. Im adding around 250mls per hectolitre which is at the lower end of the scale. I will give it a few days to settle out and then filter the wine to another tank as it continues its journey towards our bottling date in early April.
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